HBF Quokkas declare ‘not for profit is love’ in new power ballad campaign via Leo Burnett
HBF’s little posse of quokkas is at it again. This time, they’re professing their undying love for the not-for-profit health insurer to the tune of Foreigner’s classic hit, I Wanna Know What Love Is, part of a new campaign developed by Leo Burnett Melbourne.
Following the release of ‘Holding Out For a Zero’, which featured a quokka rendition of the Bonnie Tyler classic in 2020, this new tribute sees Buddy the quokka, backed by a choir of his macropod mates, professing his feelings for HBF – a champion of the people that’s passionate about taking care of its members, not lining the pockets of shareholders.
Says Louise Ardagh, general manager marketing and member engagement, HBF: “Having a wholly member, not shareholder, agenda is the critical difference that sets us apart from the big ‘for-profits’. And, while this brand campaign is a lot of fun, it underscores a really important message – that we’ll always look after members in the moments that matter.”
Says Kate Silver, general manager Leo Burnett Melbourne: “The impact of the quokkas on strengthening our East and West Coast footprints has been profound. It’s been great to grow the brand via humour and not worthiness and we’re confident this next instalment will entertain once again.”
An extended 60-second karaoke-style lyric video will be shared across social and YouTube. Buddy will even be making radio and TV appearances through sponsorships with Nova Entertainment and Channel 7’s much anticipated show The Voice Generations.
Client: HBF
General Manager Marketing and Engagement: Louise Ardagh
Senior Manager Brand: Louisa Ross
Brand Manager: Amie Taylor
Brand Coordinator: Hannah Carlisle
Agency: Leo Burnett
Chief Creative Officer: Jason Williams
Creative Director: Jim Walsh
Creative Director: Michelle Walsh
Director of Integrated Strategy: Ilona Janashvili
General Manager: Kate Silver
Senior Project Lead: Amanda Nicoll
Senior Broadcast Producer: Francesca D’Orazio
Broadcast Producer: Naomi Nienaber
Production: Mighty Nice
Director: Simon Robson
Lead Animator: Duncan McLaren
Music: Squeak E. Clean Studios
Music Supervision: Squeak E. Clean Studios
Sound: Bang Bang
Engineer: Sam Hopgood
Media: UM
13 Comments
Not quite Ted though.
Not for profit but happy to take profits away from health service providers, including dentists and, now, physiotherapists by acquiring LifeReady Physio. This quite literally takes clients from loyal, privately operated health service providers that have looked after their members for decades.
Bit rich to be preaching about the merits of “giving back” to Members and WA.
A bit overdone already via a blast from the past?
Not my kind of insurance provider…
Talk the talk but can’t walk the walk.
Quite simply the best TVC I’ve seen out of Australia in a very long time.
Greg, are you a boomer? Honest question.
Yes I’m a Boomer.
But I define myself as Adman.
The TVC doesn’t appeal to me because of a demographic but as well executed extension of a cut through campaign in the category.
I’m not usually a fan of “cute animated character” TVCs but I acknowledge the success of Burnett Chicago with characters ranging from the Jolly Green Giant to Snap, Crackle and Pop, Tony the Tiger etc.
FCBs “I Heard it through the Grapevine” spot for Sun-Maid and the California Raisin Advisory Board was a stand out in the genre.
I have no interest in the “politics” of various health benefits providers like some comments in this forum.
My focus is only and always on the advertising.
That has been my focus throughout my career.
Cheers.
I’m an Adman not a demographic.
Cheers.
But great production values and music and way better than anything HBF’s previous agency released.
Exactly Not Ted.
And changing the lyric “heartache” to toothache just part of a brilliant creative tour de force.
Cheers.
Is the target audience ‘under 7 and over 70’? This is the kind of campaign 4-year olds and Facebook mums think is ‘cute’. That doesn’t make it clever, strategically sound or even good. If you can’t think of a great idea; do a song. If you can’t even write a song, use one that’s already popular and just change the words. This is the absolute lowest bar for creativity. You could answer literally any brief using this formula. The reason more brands don’t, is cost. Sure, it looks and sounds great, but there’s no idea here.
Saw my 90-year-old gran last weekend, she LOVES this. I asked if she knew what it was trying to say; ‘Well no, but it’s such a lovely song, isn’t it?’ She referred to it as ‘that cute singing quokka commercial’ and didn’t even remember the brand. She was 3 mojitos deep tho…
What Gran said.
Your recent, very successful advertising campaign has featured the most loved marsupial, of Western Australia, the Quokka.
Most of us have memories of our childhood visits to Rottnest, where we all had encounters with this little furry friend. These are happy memories, repeated again and again on visits to this iconic seaside holiday retreat. Due to their Island isolation, and their tourist potential, Quokkas are plentiful on the Island, protected, and survival seems assured for generations to come.
The same cannot be said, however, for the very same creature, desperately close to extinction, in the Northern Jarrah forests, where they are rarely seen, and seldom captured on film. The mainland quokka lives harmoniously with other forest dwellers, through the Darling Ranges, and is mostly seen from Jarrahdale to Dwellingup. Recently, we had news of a colony in Northcliffe. All mainland Quokkas are listed and protected. The arrival of Alcoa, and now the possibility of mining by Rio Tinto, has renewed interest in the mainland quokka.
Some people are not aware that mining for bauxite, as carried out by Alcoa, involves the stripping of all vegetation, and the removal of all topsoil to retrieve the bauxite which lies in a rather thin layer, beneath the topsoil. After mining, the once dense forest is a wasteland. Where do all the birds and animals go? There has been a fairly half-hearted effort to maintain a few ” habitat trees” due to a highlighted interest in the Barnaby Black Cockatoo, but other small creatures have nowhere to go. One of these small creatures is the Western Australian quokka, your well-known advertising figure. I’m sure that all the children who love their cuddly quokka toys, bought after watching your advertisements, would be heartbroken to know that these quokkas are simply scraped up by enormous bulldozers, run over by huge mining trucks, or left to die of starvation in a post mining desert.
As the WA mainland quokkas are very rare, protected and close to being endangered, is it possible that you could in some way bear in mind their plight, in future advertisements where you feature the Rottnest quokkas?
We have been petitioning the WA Government to consider this, and other considerations, for many years now, and we will soon have our opportunity to make a submission to the Environmental Protection Authority. Your assistance would be an enormous boost. Your portrayal of our WA quokka as alive, well, (and taking an interest in WA AFL football!), is very effective advertising, but sadly, far from the truth in reality.
Nicole de Hoog